The delegation was attacked at the Açaizal indigenous community, in the region of the Santareno Plateau - 09/11/2018

Members of the OAS commission during their visit to the Açaizal indigenous community Santarém. Picture: CIDH

The direction of the film Beyond Fordlândia strongly rejects the truculence of soy producers engaged against the delegation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights during a meeting with indigenous leaders in Açaizal territory. The attempts at intimidation, violent words and actions cannot be permitted, especially given the delicate moment for public environmental policy in Brazil. Traditional populations and lands are not the cause of problems and should be respected. Complete report below:

A delegation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) present in Santarém, West Pará, on Novemeber 8th, has confirmed that they were followed to an Açaizal indigenous community, in the Plateau region, by two trucks carrying known soy industrialists.

On arriving in the community, the industrialists insisted on participating in the meeting, which had been arranged with only the indigenous leaders.

According to a report by the organization of the Brazilian Committee of Defenders of Human Rights (Comitê Brasileiro de Defensoras e Defensores de Direitos Humanos), the industrialists came with a violent, racist discourse.

Moreover, they attempted to identify the number plates of vehicles bringing the participants to the meeting at Açaizal, which the delegation interpreted as an attitude of intimidation.

After police intervention, the soy industrialists left.

The IACHR, which is linked to the OAS (Organization of American States), is tasked with the promotion and protection of human rights on the American continent.

Public Note - We will not be silenced! (*)

The 34 organizations from the city and countryside composing the Brazilian Committee of Defenders of Human Rights (CBDDH), hereby manifest their concern and make public their accusation of threats and intimidation suffered by the Delegation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Brazilian authorities, indigenous leaders, defenders of human rights and representatives of civil society organizations, on November 8th, in Santarém (PA).

Even with Police protection the Delegation was followed to the Açaizal indigenous land, located on the Santareno Plateau, by two trucks transporting known soy industrialists from the region.

Upon arriving in the indigenous territory, the occupants of the trucks insisted on participating in the meeting, which had been arranged with only the indigenous leaders.

They delivered racist and violent tirades against those present and also attempted to identify the number plates of the cars, vehicles and vans that had brought the participants in the meeting to the indigenous territory, in a clear display of intimidation. Only after being challenged by the police did they leave.

The Committee's organizations strongly reject these attitudes, as well as the violence against the Indians on the land below the Tapajós river and around the country. There has been an increase in violence against these populations in recent years and just last November 6th, there were two victims, with the assassination of indigenous leader Reinaldo Silva Pataxó, killed by gun shots in the Catarina Caramuru Paraguassú village in Pau Brasil (BA), and the gun attack against Avá-Guarani Indian, Donecildo Agueiro, of the Tekoha Tatury territory in Guaraí (PR).

We also demand that the Brazilian State guarantee security for the agenda foreseen for the officil visit of IACHR to Brazil, which finishes on November 12th, so that it occurs without further incident.

We believe that it is extremely important that, at this time of growing violence against defenders of human rights, international organizations can fulfil their function of investigating the numerous violations of human rights that occur in the country.

The conviction of Celso Pezzini Rech for the deforestation of 124 hectares of forest in an area of Amazônia Legal has been upheld. The Regional Federal Court of the 1st Region (TRF1) took the decision after the accused's appeal against the decision of the Federal Justice in Pará, which had determined recuperation of the deforested area and payment of a R$ 482,784.80 fine for collective material and moral damages to the Fund for the Defence of Diffuse Rights (Fundo de Defesa de Direitos Difusos).

The Federal Justice decision resulted from the request for conviction from the MPF based on the violation notice of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis), Ibama, which confirmed the degradation of the area at the Jerusalém farm, in Belterra (PA).

Photo after the defense of the Course Conclusion Project at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. From left to right: Daniel; professor and tutor, Simone Orlando; and the professors of the examination board; Rejane Moreira and Wagner Costa.

The Amazon awakens different sensations in those that come into contact with its history, its name and its land. It was as such for professor Marcos Colón, who envisioned a project and a reason to make a defense of this treasure, gifting us the documentary Beyond Fordlândia.

In September of last year, through a much loved teacher, Lucas was able to get to know this universe. To collaborate on a project in tune with our ideas is extremely gratifying.

Daniel Delfino, 27 anos, defended his monograph on the same day as me. Graduated and employed, at times he would talk about the desire to “get involved in more projects”. In this great phase of the film's repercussion, I invited him to work on the creation of an article about the documentary for Wikipédia.

This was the start of what was sure to be a fruitful partnership. Daniel translated in his humor the qualities often associated with good journalists - acumen, curiosity and dedication. It was a great opportunity to include an extremely competent friend in this adventure. But our project has been cut short.

Daniel was hit in the stomach by a stray bullet, in Guadalupe, the neighborhood where he lived, in the North zone of Rio de Janeiro. The raw violence that took his life last Sunday (16) leaves us dumbfounded and disturbed. His memory, enthusiasm and respect for life will continue with us.

We won't allow ourselves to forget that Daniel's life was cut down by the violence of social confrontation. The state and organized crime live a conflict that goes beyond the common citizen. It must be resisted by the citizens and in the name of those that fell victim to the tragedy of our days.

We leave here our love for our friend and professional colleague.

Our sympathies and strength to Daniel's family at this difficult time.

The 2018 edition of the traditional Grand Rapids Film Festival (GRFF), which took place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, bolstered the movement of the festival in search of filmmakers with their own particular way of observing the world around them, with the documentary, Beyond Fordlândia (EUA, 2017, 75 min.), more than meeting expectations to win the prize of Best Feature at GRFF.

After the screening at the Wealthy Theatre, Marcos Cólon participated in a talk with the public on the film's production and the reactions to screenings of the film around the world. Upon receiving the award, he then emphasized the significance of the prize.

Marcos Colón (on the left, director of Beyond Fordlândia) and John Otterbacher director of the GRFF in the event.

“It is gratifying to see that the challenges faced by the Amazon rain forest call attention to so wide a variety of people. The Amazonia people and the Forest cry out for sustainable solutions to the ecosystem that is favorable to us all. It is great recognition that the film was awarded a prize at a festival that is not restricted to the theme of the environment, but that manifests the same concern with the transformation of the planet that we all inhabit", as evaluated the director.

Next month, Beyond Fordlândia has screenings programmed for London and Wales, in the United Kingdom, and at Cine Eco, in Seia, Portugal

How the message of a film was able to overcome the organizational limits of the world's biggest water event

By Lucas Lacerda

Brasília received more than 100 thousand people for the World Water Forum, wich took place at the Mané Garrincha Stadium and the Ulysses Guimarães Convention Center between 18th and 23rd March. The magnificence of the eighth and biggest edition ever of the event contrasted with the fragile situation of water supplies in the Brazilian capital. Since January of 2017, inhabitants of the Federal District have faced rotating supply implemented by the Environmental Sanitation Company of the Federal District (Companhia de Saneamento Ambiental do Distrito Federal - Caesb) due to water scarcity. The event area, however, was spared from rationing.

Contradictions marked the conception and the 274 discussions programmed for the Forum. While agropop representatives – united around the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (Confederação da Agricultura e Pecuária do Brasil - CNA) – demonstrated the strength of their business, which represents the highest and least efficient consumption of water in the country, participants in the Alternative World Water Forum (Fórum Alternativo Mundial da Água - FAMA) denounced the shadowy interests behind the official discourse with the cry “Water is a right, not a commodity!”.

Marcos Colón during the Q&A at the World Water Forum

In this scenario, Marcos Colón's production, Beyond Fordlândia, sought to enhance one of the most urgent discussions in relation to water, human beings and Amazonian vegetation. The film was presented at the showcase of the Green Film Program, held at Cine Brasília, with 46 other productions selected for the WWF. Conceived with an approach of processes of slow violence, the first foray of the director makes a historical connection between the failed venture of Henry Ford's rubber plantation on the banks of the Tapajós river and contemporary agribusiness driven by the soy industry.

The eco-critical approach of the director revisits episodes of devastation in Fordlândia from 1927 – today the Aveiro-PA district – and its implications in the imagery of a period of bonanza grafted on the Amazon rainforest. Besides the failed rubber project, Ford would also leave a legacy in Belterra, the place of the first experimentation with soy.

Amazon in Check

On the morning of March 21st, there was a lecture with the director of the UnB College of Comunication (Faculdade de Comunicação da Universidade de Brasília), mediated by Professor Dr. Rose May Carneiro. The lecture dealt with some of the points from the doctorate research being developed by Colón, such as the idea of slow violence, from researcher Rob Nixon, and its link to ecocritical concepts, of Rachel Carson, for the formulation of a new approach to similar processes to those reported in the film.

In the midst of the great economic cycles imposed upon the Amazon, Beyond Fordlândia grasps the remnants and demonstrates to the public the interrupted futures of the traditional communities, the Quilombolas, the Indians and their relatives in the region in dispute. For the president of the Historical and Geographical Institute of Amazonas (Instituto Histórico e Geográfico do Amazonas), Marilene Corrêa, this is a panorama that is not receiving the attention it is due.

“We don't have a public political focus or research funding aimed at this theme of large-scale ventures and their impacts on the biomes and ecosystems. It is a story deserving a permanent critical perspective as a task of the Brazilian intelligentsia – the University”, criticized the researcher, reinforcing that it is necessary to have “a direct line of investigation to measure the impact of agribusiness on the extremely fragile cerrado biome and the part of it bordering the Amazon”.

Professor Marilene Corrêa during the Master Class at the University of Brasília (UNB).

The professor refers to a crucial point of Amazonian environmental policy. It is known that soy could spread across the south of the country and advance through the cerrado – as it did with well-known aggressiveness. It could not, in any hypothesis, reach the region of the forest. It has not only invaded, but has been slowly installed there, being able to reach a level of indigenous accumulation, that is, an irreversible process of environmental destruction and sociocultural impact.

Old Ghosts

During the lecture, Colón exposed some points from his doctorate research applied to production of the documentary, which would also be picked up again in the screening session at Cine Brasília, on the night of March 21st. Based on the critical approach of the invasion of economic capital in the Amazon, Colón proposes new perspectives and methodologies for the observation of these processes.

“We have reached a moment to stop, think and intervene in the process in some way, or the future will contemplate a wide variety of hardships. Differently to rubber, soy destroys the landscapes, contaminates the ground waters, wipes out family agriculture and, at its greatest extent is killing humans, the last element in these chains”, he began.

The director, who is researching Amazonian representation in literary works of the 20th century, indicates that this process is one of slow violence. It passes right before the eyes of society, but happening almost imperceptibly, against the environment, against culture, against human beings, following its path in silence. It is therefore necessary to look at the Amazon in different ways.

It would be an approach of slow seeing, to understand how these processes were designed and engrained in the region, so that other ways and less aggressive models may be proposed for the forest.

Interview with the director of Beyond Fordlândia, Marcos Colón, in the day of the screening.

“And this is the approach of the film in relation to water: the agribusiness industry is the highest consumer of water in Brazil. The process of pesticide infiltration contaminates groundwater and bodies of water. The central issue in agribusiness, as well as in the cases of Juruti and the Bacarena episode, are all linked to the theme of water. It is a political divestment of the State”, criticized Colón, demonstrating that leniency with these problemas is related to the lack of a slow perspective capable of grasping the entire complexity of the processes.

Beyond Institutions

In all its contradictions, the Forum, participation in which came at a price (455BRL - approximately $135), had limitations to its discussions. As a mega event, it was necessary to discuss in institutional terms, with the aim of perfecting the use and preservation of water. In his column in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, journalist André Trigueiro attested to the excellent legacy of the Forum and indicated the challenges to water management, besides the challenges of renewed confrontation of water and sanitation problems from the sense of urgency garnered at the Forum.

However, the message from institutions consolidated and committed to their own interests is limited, despite the good intentions and necessity of survival. It is at this moment that the filmic language manages to reach far beyond and bring a sense of raw local urgency to the world.

“Interviewed [in the film], a gaucho owner of one of the soybean farms, defends that three or four more ports be built! According to him, ‘there's just a load of trees in the Amazon and we have to make money..." This interview translates how the majority of Brazilians, until today, see the forest, the ecosystems, nature, as an ‘obstacle' to development, without ever questioning this model of agro-exporter of raw materials that only brings disastrous consequences to the country”, commented historian Jane de Alencar, present at the screening.

That night, the message was for the audience at Cine Brasília. If there was one word to define the session, it was perplexity. The message of Beyond Fordlândia is clear: The irrational exploitation of natural resources is going full steam ahead, and it is down to a conscious society to seek alternatives to this process.

Production debated in Californian universities and wins another prize

The documentary Beyond Fordlândia paid an important visit to the states of California and Illinois, in the United States. In the midst of a worldwide agenda of events, the film was presented and debated on the campuses of the University of California in San Diego, Santa Barbara and Davis.

“The documentary eloquently presents the consequences of the intensive practice of extractivism, implicitly comparing, in the same vein, the failed project of Henry Ford with today's intensive soy production in the same region — while demonstrating their differences”, commented professor Ricardo Vasconcelos of San Diego State University .

Vasconcelos added that the film also served as a rich source of contemporaneous information on the Amazon for the public, considering the critical moment of economic pressure suffered by the forest.

Daniel Ares-Lopez, another professor of the institution, highlighted how flabbergasted those present were in relation to the Amazonian panorama presented in the film.

“During the debate we observed that the public had been genuinely affected by the film. Many students showed their concern regarding the relationship between American agro-industrial corporations and the socio-environmental destruction of the Amazon”, recalled Ares-Lopez.

New prize

Outside the academic environment, the production was also screened at the 10th Geneva Film Festival and the Peace on Earth Film Festival. Geneva was the stage for another conquest - the prize for “Emerging Documentary Filmmaker,” the fifth prize for the film in just a few months! With the powerful narrative it presents, the film has guaranteed recognition and visibility for the Amazonian cause.

Peace On Earth, which is dedicated to ecological, cultural and political approaches and themes, presented a discussion with the directors and creators of the films. The neurosurgeon, Erik Jennings, who is among the cast of Beyond Fordlândia, presented some of the work developed in the Amazon and his reflections on the panorama of the region.

“The film proved to be a genuinely strong and moving voice at the Peace On Earth Festival. An Amazonian voice that director Marcos Colón has brought to the world with a great deal of courage and competence. At the heart of the issue is human suffering, prematurely silenced by the disease or by some form of violence ”, reported Jennings.

The exhibition circuit continues! Follow the dates in our diary and participate in the movement of Raise Your Voice for the Amazon!

The Princeton Environmental Film Festival 2018 (PEFF) awarded the Beyond Fordlândia documentary its seventh prize, entitled the Emerging Filmmakers Award. The screening happened on April 10th and received a public eager for information and a true panorama of the contemporary Amazon, which Marcos Colón's pioneering production successfully delivers.

“It is very important to see that the film brings the Amazonian theme to a growing number of spaces, especially at such respected institutions and festivals, like the PEFF. We have just received an award in Japan and we have been to the World Water Forum. I am glad to see that the mission of divulging and drawing attention to Ford's legacy and the impact of agribusiness on the Amazon is being recognized”, reported the director.

Beyond Fordlândia was part of the PEFF program with 26 other productions, screened on the campus of Princeton University, at the Princeton Garden Theatre and the Hopewell Theatre, from April 9th to 15th.

The documentary Beyond Fordlânda premiered in the French capital on the 24th of January 2018. Invited by the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales - EHSS), director Marcos Colón, professor and scientist Marcus Barros and researcher and professor Marilene Corrêa went to Paris for a screening of the film followed by debate. The event, in the François-Furet Amphitheater (Anfiteatro François-Furet), served to widen the debate taking place at festivals and research institutions around the world.

“The premiere in Paris took place in an academic environment of the highest level, among a highly acclaimed group of researchers – the Think Tank on Contemporary Brazil (Grupo de Reflexão sobre o Brasil Contemporâneo)”, affirmed Marilene Corrêa, president of the Geographical and Historical Institute of the Amazon (Instituto Geográfico e Histórico do Amazonas).

“Scientific criticism on the economic experiences of the Amazon – so well translated in the filmic language of the production – was another relevant aspect for the dialogue between the audience and the director of the film, and its interlocutors in the Amazon”, she added.

For Corrêa, the fact that the Parisian premiere occurred among a group of researchers accentuates the reach of the film through European and Brazilian Universities, as does the repercussion on Rádio France International, which transmits to various countries in 15 different languages.

Doctor Marcus Barros, who was the director of Ibama from 2003 to 2007, also highlighted the importance of the connection Colón makes between the predatory cycles of the Amazon.

“What the film exposes is the failure of development models that don’t take into account the environment and the lives of the peoples it affects. This is shown not only in Ford’s failed Project in the Amazon, but also in the aggressions of the extractivism and contraband of minerals and wood. The link between these enclaves showed, once again, that the Amazon cannot accept these projects any more”, summarised the scientist, who also remembered the importance of showing the film in institutions of research and learning.

Beyond Fordlândia was screened at the Center for Inter-American Studies (Centro de Estudos Interamericanos) of the University of Innsbruck, Austria, on the 12th December 2017. Invited by University professor, Martin Coy, director Marcos Colón talked about the importance of connecting places and experiences through film. “Although the theme portrayed in the film has a specific location – the Amazon, the issues and concerns discussed have universal coverage. The same aggressions against humans, the environment and the indigenous communities occur in other countries and continents ”, explained the director. Besides the repetition of the process around the world, Colón demonstrated preoccupation with the Brazilian context. “The form of intervention through which history repeats itself in the Amazonian social and cultural environment is tragic and peculiar: dispossessed, isolated and frequently ignored by public power, even with all its multiplicity”, he explained.

One of the most respected research institutions in the world, the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society held a presentation of Beyond Fordlândia at Amerika House in Munich, Germany, on 11th December 2017.

The round table debates on agribusiness in the Amazon and the historical evils of the rubber process was composed of the film's director, Marcos Colón, professor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Kata Beilin, and professor from the University of Zurique, Antoine Acker.

“It was a great event. The public demonstrated a lot of enthusiasm in relation to the film, with various requests for further screenings of the production. We were able to discuss the scenario of the film in the face of social, political and cultural issues”, related professor Beilin, who researches interspecies resistance to genetically engineered soy in the Hispanic World.

Rio de Janeiro hosted the official debut of Beyond Fordlândia on November 14, after the successful production of several international film festivals and events in the states of Pará and Amazonas. The film was shown in a special session of the Filmambiente Festival.

More than 100 people attended the exhibition, which was followed by a debate with director Marcos Colón and the public health specialist Marcus Barros, who includes the cast of scientists, artists, teachers, journalists, researchers and representatives of traditional and indigenous communities of the movie. The conversation was mediated by the biologist and vice president of Conservation International of Brazil, Rodrigo Medeiros.

In addition to questions about the film and the production of the documentary, the debate served to bring to the southeast axis of Brazil the concern with the model of development arbitrarily imposed on diverse regions of the Amazon by the soybean industry.

“By the literature, I knew several projects for the Amazon. But I experienced one of them, which is the Free Zone of Manaus, as well as the Ford project reported by Marcos [Colón]. More than 500 companies that in a violent migration of labor that later will be discarded. And the people, marginalized. Brazil has not learned from the degradation coming from large projects It is the social degradation that leads to human and social ill health. Brazil has not learned that this is not the way to deal with the Amazon”, criticized Professor Marcus Barros.

The next destination of the film is Germany. At the Rachel Carson for Environment and Society, in Munich, director Marcos Colón will participate in a screening of the film with debate, to be held on December 11, with the participation of historian Antoine Acker of the University of Zurich and Professor Kata Beilin of the Department of Portuguese and Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The discussion will be mediated by the director of Rachel Carson Center, Professor Christof Mauch.